The Pathfinders Task Force (PTF) is seeking all credentialed first responders who are available to deploy on a short-term emergency response mission in Houston, TX to support local response efforts following the impact of Hurricane Harvey.

First responders who deploy with PTF will be responsible for managing local spontaneous volunteers to seek out and resolve the unmet needs for homebound survivors. PTF will also support the management of a logistics staging area and the deployment of several points of distribution to ensure local survivors receive emergency relief supplies in a timely manner.

"Our taskforce has been inundated with requests for assistance and has identified a large base of operations in downtown Houston that may be used by PTF to support local response efforts," said Scott Lewis, President of PTF and a Palm Beach Civic Association Corporate Member.

If you are available for a short-term deployment to Houston, TX to support local response efforts, please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. with your resume and ICS position to receive additional information about team placement.

PTF is currently seeking mass care specialists, volunteer coordinators, logistics specialists, donations managers, and other relevant first responder professionals to support this deployment.

For more information about the Pathfinders Task Force deployment to Houston, TX in response to Hurricane Harvey, please contact Matthew Campbell.

To train communities across the nation to replicate over 15 years of Pathfinders’ successes that have utilized spontaneous, unaffiliated volunteer survivors in an effort to strengthen preparedness while promoting further integration of volunteer responders into a better organized force multiplier to career responders during disasters.

The Pathfinders Task Force® has been involved in the largest man-made and natural disasters in recent history. Having been first responders in Haiti and Japan following their massive earthquakes, and having spent 189 days in the Gulf of Mexico following the BP Oil Spill of 2010, the Task Force has gained an incredible amount of experience and proven to be a best practice for emergency management situational awareness and efficiency in disaster response.

The Pathfinders Task Force® helps coordinate and rapid field-train responders to reach tens-of-thousands of disaster survivors at their front doors within days, while seeking out and resolving the unmet special needs of vulnerable populations using software that provides situational awareness to Command. PTF and current responders collect incident data. This data is then analyzed and provided to Command via customized reports by way of Executive Summaries. PTF also uses the pre-sorted and sanitized data for Situation Unit updates which are concise but thorough—with no extra burden on the local Command. Pathfinders IT section provides Google Earth, Tableau, and ESRI views, with geocoded, time date stamped, Excel sortable data for an unparalleled efficiency and management tool in disaster operations—either in or out of network connectivity.